The generation of life events in recurrent and non-recurrent depression

Background. The stress generation hypothesis proposed by Hammen (1991) hold s that depressed individuals generate stressful conditions for themselves, which lead to recurrence. The original test of this hypothesis compared dep endent life events in women with recurrent depression to medical and normal controls. Two further research questions emerged from this work: (a) do in dividuals with a history of many depressive episodes generate more dependen t life events than depressives with fewer episodes?; and (b) what is the ae tiological relevance of any stress that may be generated? Methods. The present research tested differences in dependent and independe nt events between depressed individuals who had experienced: (a) no previou s major depressive episodes; (b) one previous episode; and (c) two or more previous episodes. We predicted that, based on the stress generation hypoth esis, recurrent depressives would show more dependent events than people wi thout a depression history, and that these generated stressors would be of aetiological importance for precipitating recurrence (i.e. severe events in the 3 months preceding recurrence). Results. Recurrent depressives experienced significantly more total depende nt events than first-onset depressives in the 12 months, but not the 3 mont hs, preceding their episode. Conclusions. Although the findings supported the general premise of stress generation, the aetiological relevance of the generated stress for recurren ce requires further study.